Well since Gaston looks very unlikely to play in the Davis Cup tie against the Swedes. It doesn't mean we can support the Argentine team whoever plays in it and yes that includes players we don't necessarily like.

They should be good enough to win this tie and the team of Nalle, Chela, Calleri and Acasuso isn't a bad team under the circumstances and any news relating to the tie would be appreciated for sure.

Vamos Argentina.

“ On Nadal bumping him on the changeover, Rosol said: "It's ok, he wanted to take my concentration; I knew he would try something".

Wilander on Dimitrov - "He has mind set on imitating Federer and yes it looks good. But he has no idea what to do on the court".

And yes I know I hate Davis Cup - but as you wanted any news relating to the tie - Clarins this morning say that Nabandian and Calleri have been confirmed as the doubles' team - singles' players not decided yet.

AJDE SRBIJA

Supporting Djoković, Tipsarević, Soderling, Tursunov, Youzhny, Cilić and quite a few more

Robin Söderling who is sufering from a cold and the remaining players in the Swedish Davis Cup team arrived in Buenos Aires on Monday before the very difficult match with Argentina on the weekend.

The home team is a huge favourite in spite of among others Gaston Gaudio the world number 9 announcing his withdrawl.

Robin Söderling who is competing for a singles place had a cold and a fever, at the end of last week, but has recovered quickly." The cold is still there, but I am a lot better now" said Söderling in the lobby of the Players Hotel.

He is wanting to play singles on the weekend, but must feel good in the long training sessions which are expected in the heat of Buenos Aires in the upcoming days. It is still not a certainty of how he feels with his physical conditioning.

Happy Wilander

Team captain Mats Wilander is very satisfied with Söderling's fine comeback on the court, a win in the Heilbronn challenger in Germany after having been away since October last year because of a knee problem.

"It naturally means a lot that Söderling is back. He is a very good player on clay, even if it is not his favourite surface" believes Wilander.

He could also state that the Argentina's team has become weaker, at least on paper. Team captain Alberto Mancini har got an ocean of class players to chose from. On Monday came the information that the world number 9 Gaston Gaudio has big problems with his shoulder and that he won't play singles on the weekend.

The replacement is the in the form Jose Acasuso ranked 33 in the world, who won singles and doubles in Viña del Mar. He is competing with the 46th ranked Juan Ignacio Chela, to see whom will play singles apart from the undoubted superstar David Nalbandian.

Pressure on home team

Tennis is big in Argentina despite it being neglected to football, the pressure on the players is hard. A win against Sweden is more or less a requirement.

This is how DC captain Mats Wilander sees a possiblity when some of the most experienced and most successful Argentines are not there on the weekend. Gaudio is injured, Coria out of form and Mariano Puerta out with a doping ban. All three were in the TMC two months ago.

The players there are just nearly as good but they may get unbelieveable pressure on them" says Wilander hopefully.

“ On Nadal bumping him on the changeover, Rosol said: "It's ok, he wanted to take my concentration; I knew he would try something".

Wilander on Dimitrov - "He has mind set on imitating Federer and yes it looks good. But he has no idea what to do on the court".

Thanks for the translation. Well, nice to read Swedish Captain's pretty confident....I agree about that pressure on players, turning into requirement to win. But I doubt it'll affect as much their game. Anyway, we'll see soon enough.

Thanks, George, for translating that interesting article! The Swedes have been in Punta del Este training on clay for the past week, so they should be feeling more comfortable with the surface. I can tell you that there is no euphoria here about the tie, everybody acknowledges that it will be difficult...

Yes, I knew they have been in Uruguay, the benefits of knowing some Swedish people . At the same time Wilander and Vinciguerra are the best Swedes on clay, but Argentina should be good enough to win this tie and no it won't be easy.

“ On Nadal bumping him on the changeover, Rosol said: "It's ok, he wanted to take my concentration; I knew he would try something".

Wilander on Dimitrov - "He has mind set on imitating Federer and yes it looks good. But he has no idea what to do on the court".

Coria said he'd backed out because there were other players who were playing better than he was, and then Mancini contradicted him, saying that Coria had NOT self-excluded himself.
Well, those were the first two versions, but today La Nación emphasizes a third which has been suggested recently (as it's a serious paper that double-checks its information, I tend to believe this account).

The title is "Living in a world full of suspicions" and this is the excerpt about the Davis Cup:

"And what about the Davis Cup? Haven't you heard about the famous player (rumoured to be Nalbandian) who requested that a colleague should not be included in the team because relations with him had deteriorated in recent months? For the tie against Sweden, Coria's being left out was camouflaged alleging his current lack of form and a serve that will require something more than magic to acquire consistency, but, mainly, it was eclipsed by Nalbandian's present level. But if one proclaims "the most important thing is the team spirit", it should be put into practice and not just enunciated.
As Gaudio commented to someone close to him: "Even if Coria is not playing well, he's a crack player, and the cracks must always be on the team"."

Roger Federer, the world's No. 1 tennis player, has bailed out of Switzerland's first-round match against Australia, citing the need to “listen to my body.”

Rafael Nadal and Lleyton Hewitt, the highest-ranking players of Spain and Australia, have listened to their bodies and heard ankles pleading for mercy. Both players have begged out of this week's Davis Cup competition, purportedly to nurse their injuries. Both, however, have agreed to compete next week.

The world's most unwieldy sporting event starts Friday at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club and seven other international sites, but it won't end until Dec. 3 in Parts Unknown. Small wonder, then, that so many leading players get into it looking for a way out.

Competing for one's country is an honor, a privilege and, generally speaking, a great career move. But for the itinerant millionaires of international tennis, the Davis Cup can be daunting. It is an annual event that involves a huge, open-ended commitment. It's like jury duty with line judges.

Last year, the world's top 15 players all participated in Davis Cup matches. This week, only nine of the top 15 are involved, and just five of the top 11.

Of the last 10 men to win Grand Slam singles titles, only American Andy Roddick will be playing for national pride this weekend. Some of the Davis Cup absences are attributable to legitimate ailments – Argentina's Gaston Gaudio was recently replaced because of a shoulder injury – and Pete Sampras rates a dispensation for being retired. Still, the big picture is problematical.

McEnroe says the problem is the product of a “relentless” schedule, particularly for the top players. Unlike most other sports, the tennis calendar does not conform to a specific season. The Grand Slam events start in January and stretch into September, and even after the U.S. Open there are 17 more events on the ATP calendar.

Hewitt's manager, Rob Aivatoglou, justified his client's withdrawal with simple math. He said each Davis Cup round requires three weeks of preparation and playing and could therefore tie up 12 weeks of a player's time.

“Unfortunately, we're in a position where we're playing pretty close to 11 months of the year,” Roddick said during a media conference yesterday afternoon in La Jolla. “Something's got to give, but I haven't figured out what yet. I want to try to do it all.

“Davis Cup is definitely on the top of my list of priorities, though. We haven't won it (since 1995). That's something that's a huge, huge goal for me personally and for us as a team. It would be tough, not having accomplished that goal, to sit out and not commit to it. I've told the captain that I'm committed to this cause as long as he wants me here. That stands true.”

Roddick's commitment is commendable. At 23, the world's third-ranked player will be competing on his sixth U.S. Davis Cup team this weekend against Romania, and he served previously as a practice partner. Roddick is 17-6 in Davis Cup competition, and he also claims an assist for the 1992 American victory over Switzerland. He was, at the time, 10 years old.

While attending the finals in Fort Worth, Texas, Roddick remembers being struck by the noise the Swiss fans generated by clanging cow bells and resolved to restore America's home-court advantage. With an older brother as an accessory, he scoured the city for ear-splitting equipment, finally settling on a pair of bicycle air horns.

The Roddick brothers stationed themselves on opposite sides of the Tarrant County Center in an effort to counteract the cow bells.

Andy Roddick has never lost the enthusiasm that experience engendered, and that's admirable. Yet it would be unfair and simplistic to expect every top player to be so overtly patriotic in setting his schedule.

Athletes have always valued the chance to compete for their country, but it should not be seen as a never-ending obligation. Just as no one should think less of a soldier who declines to re-enlist, no one should expect a tennis player to play Davis Cup indefinitely.

Great Britain's Tim Henman played 50 Davis Cup matches over 11 years before retiring from the competition last month. A man can only stretch himself so thin for so long.

“How can you blame (him)?” Patrick McEnroe asked. “He finally gets to be in his 30s and says, 'You know, something has to give because the system has not changed. If the system isn't going to change, I've got to protect myself.' ”

If the Davis Cup is to remain relevant, it had better become more user-friendly.

The problem with that article is that it is short sighted about DC. Just like my signature people only care about top players getting injured and it's the same for DC.

Yes, Americans don't care about DC, but there a lot of people and nations that do and also these ties actually give federations some money and the ITF are loathe to change something which will effect tennis negatively.

Stars whine about DC, if the ITF changed the structure, then the stars would find another excuse not to play.

“ On Nadal bumping him on the changeover, Rosol said: "It's ok, he wanted to take my concentration; I knew he would try something".

Wilander on Dimitrov - "He has mind set on imitating Federer and yes it looks good. But he has no idea what to do on the court".